FOOTBALL: Daniel Boone tops TV for Parks' first win

ELVERSON — It certainly wasn’t a September to remember for the Daniel Boone Blazers.

With a first-year coach in Bill Parks, Boone opened the season with five straight losses by a combined margin of 172-32.

Friday night, however, the visiting Blazers washed away the memories of that frustrating start with a second-half offensive torrent fueled by Kyle Myers that keyed a 26-0 Berks Football League Section One victory over Twin Valley.

Highlighted by three carries of 50 or more yards, Myers rushed for 187 yards and one TD on just nine carries and the Rhett Glaser-led defense stonewalled the Raiders as Parks picked up his first win.

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“It feels good, and the kids deserve it,” Parks said. “All the hard work and dedication they put in paid off, and kudos to them.”

In a first half played mainly between the 20s, Boone (1-2, 1-5 overall) got an interception and 25-yard return by Devyn Haring to take over at the Raiders’ 33 with 43 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Six plays later, Xavier Smith scored on a 2-yard run to give the Blazers a 7-0 lead.

That’s how it stayed until the third quarter, when Myers ripped off a 60-yard run on the second play of the second half to set up a 1-yard TD run by 6-5, 250-pound senior Pat Stone — seeing his first action of the season after being out with a torn labrum suffered last wrestling season.

That was plenty for the Blazers defense, which held Twin Valley (0-2, 0-6) to 100 total yards (zero passing).

“The problem for us was we didn’t move the ball, period,” Raiders coach Eric Hancock said. “You can’t give somebody multiple shots at your defense and not do anything at the other end. Our defense actually played well; we just haven’t been able to move the ball this year.”

The Blazers, on the other hand, moved it pretty well in the final two quarters — thanks largely to Myers, a 5-foot-7, 185-pound junior.

He broke a 50-yard run on a third-and-1 play from the Boone 37 to set up another trip to the red zone, which ended with a fourth-down incompletion from the 15.

On the ensuing series, though, the Blazers took advantage of a bad snap on a punt from Raiders’ 10, with Paul Galanti leading the charge that immersed punter Danny Techman for a safety that made it 16-0 with 3:08 left in the third quarter.

Kicker Andy Ricci booted home a 23-yard field goal to close out the third quarter and make it 26-0.

Twin Valley finally got untracked in the final period, with Ryan Hoffman’s 39-yard run putting the Raiders at the Boone 12. But an apparent TD run by Hoffman was negated by a holding penalty, and Boone’s Ethan Myers eventually recovered a fumble at the Blazers’ 21 to blunt the threat.

Kyle Myers then closed out the scoring, racing 66 yards with 5:24 left in the contest.

“It feels great,” Kyle Myers said. “We’ve been working really hard. We really wanted to get our first win. The first half, we were a little bit shaky. But the second half, we came out with intensity. We got each other fired up and came out and played hard.”

“It feels good to finally see your team play as one,” added Glazer, who collected a team-best 10 tackles and had one sack. “We’re coming together as a team. It was a whole team effort. I can’t ask for any more from all my teammates that started and rotated in. We practice these plays for so long, so to see them starting to pick it up and execute them was really nice to see.”

The Blazers’ victory was tempered by a couple of key injuries, to quarterback J.D. Okuniewski (shoulder) and linebacker Ryan Bologa (shoulder), who each went down in the first half and didn’t return. That adds to an injury list that also includes two-way performers Darius Hinton and Pop Lacey.

Smith ran for 48 yards for Boone, which got five tackles each from Steve Sievers and Cody Barrows and a sack from Jon Passifone. Sievers also came in at QB and guided the squad for the final three quarters-plus.

“We played a real strong second half,” Parks said. “The offensive line played a great second half. They really came out and did a good job blocking. We talked about playing all four quarters, and they played every play for all four quarters.

“Again, our guys bought into it. They’ve been watching a lot of film, and they’ve been dedicating themselves to studying their opponent, and that’s carried over to what they do on the field. They still continue to fight every day, and still continue to meet every challenge we give them. I really appreciate the work they’ve put in, and they deserve this.”

And while the win wasn’t quite the proverbial October surprise, the Blazers hope it can boost them into a better effort in the second half of the season.

“The frustration was definitely starting to set in,” Glaser admitted. “I knew it was going to take us a while to get situated, with the higher-level teams we were playing. Twin Valley really came out aggressive, I have to give them that. But as a team, I think we finally realized we needed to pick our heads up, stop focusing on what happened in the past and keep going on with the future.”

NOTES

Twin Valley got a team-high 10 tackles from Techman, eight stops from Dave Abbadusky, and an interception from Scott Olkewicz. ... Boone plays host to Pottsville next week, while the Raiders travel to Conrad Weiser in Section One action. ... Ricci also had two punts for 24.5 yards, but his 14-yard effort was after he chased down a snap over his head and calmly got it off to avert a potential disastrous situation in the third quarter.